Archive for September 8th, 2009

Thanks to the clear headed advice of rap star Jay Nay I'm gonna start rather than end, with a prompt to go to the "csa" tab on the www.ranchorelaxzo.com site if you are interested in finding out what kine food we get. Learning how to be annoying and insistent at the expense of your customers peace of mind is an important aspect of marketing and one of which I hope to become surpassingly obnoxious. Mahalo's, the meanagement.

You know the feeling when you come to from an afternoon nap in a space that turned too hot while you were sleeping. You wake up in a sweaty daze punctuated by some drool, blurred vision and creased cheeks. Thinking is all askew and left arm half asleep and starting to tingle, with a nene goose nibbling on your big toe. You know that feeling? Me too.

The scene was typical Paliku. James and Emily had planned their day and were busily dividing the contents of a clear plastic bag, scarfing a substance resembling tree bark and dried seaweed, all giggles and smiles. Young love. Disgusting really. Noemie was in a wandering whimsy and appeared to stop every now and again to pet a flower or taste the dew on a blade of grass. Ty was plotting an agenda which included challenging the ridge overlooking Kipahulu valley.

I went through the gruelling process of moving eighteen feet to the left, positioning myself in the shade of an overhanging tree next to the cabin and letting the dappled sunlight dance the rusty bag of bones polka. I did my "old guy" yoga shtick, made note of increased circulation in the still functioning extremities and figured to make it through the day. My hand went periodically to the trail mix bag like some solid fuel i.v.. I went in and out of reading and reverie, feeling the heat on my face and the cool breezy shade initiating a comeback.

Turns out that after a couple of exploratory walks, Ty and Noemie went off on the ridge hike together which I thought was totally cool because I figured Ty would get to see her whip out a pair of tinkerbell wings and butter-fly her way up the trail to the ridge, so convinced was I of her otherworldly roots.

What a moment though.Perhaps the only time in this girls life that she will experience Haleakala, taking one of the more difficult and rewarding climbs with the doofusburger (thats Mr. Doofusburger to you) leading the way, courteous and confident. What a nice connection for two young people to make. Its a reminder to me of how significant a place Haleakala can be in a persons life and what a blessing it is to live in its shadow. The view from the ridge is sweeping and encompasses an almost mind numbingly beautiful landscape. I could imagine Noemie taking it all in and filing it away under "Mon Deux".

A couple of campers showed up and a group of six headed for the ranger cabin for some all out howlin'. I had boiled up some water for the trip out the gap and then cooked up the remaining pasta and pesto. A one dish smorgyborg. The scene looking toward the gap from the grassy lawn of Paliku cabin was dynamic. From prairie grasses doing the wave in the wind to the pack horses grazing lazily in the sprawling tree splotched meadow down to the left. The misty clouds never ceased their mutable morph, climbing the ridges and surging up the gap. At one point a wave of fog washed up and vanished the surroundings, gobbling up the cabin for a few minutes before melting like cotton candy in a little kids mouth. The nene held sway and foraged their way through the afternoon while the overall sense of being peacefully disconnected opened up a growing contentment. Breathing deep came easily.

Somehow the healthcare debate lost its gravitas. Peak oil, ppffffff. The rape and pillage of the planet in the name of corporate profits; boys will be boys. Global warming, a carefully crafted conspiracy theory to hide the fact that the military has been controlling the weather for decades. Economic meltdown, cacao beans were used for currency until the late nineteenth century, so sweat it not.

It should be mandated that all members of congress, s.c.o.t.us and the executive branch be annually set ablaze by some powerful entheogen, given three liters of fresh water with a squeeze of lemon and set loose to wander the crater, nekked, for sixty four hours while spending an hour contemplating each of the hexagrams of the I Ching. Confucius say "Inertia bad, self induced freak out, good." Once you've hugged a silversword and shared a good cry with a nene goose, its game over.

James and Emily had gone wandering for a couple of hours after which they parked themselves on the other side of the cabin in the tall shaded grass. Evidence of burbling and cooing were riding the breeze and what seemed to be a ridiculously good time for them continued unabated. Disgusting really.

Now Emily, when she's not playing Bonnie to James' Clyde is a naturalist who works, of all places at a bird sanctuary in Olinda that breeds nene and sets them back in the wild after spending hours forced to watch South Park episodes and listen to tapes of Milton Freedmans economic theory. She's not sure who initiated that protocol. She is able to replicate every nuanced sound they make and has pretty much figured out what they are saying. Its funny because every now and then right in the middle of an intimate conversation with James she'll go into some goose-speak tirade having overheard some kind of squabble in the underbrush. James just robs banks.

Ty and Noemie got back as Maui's grasp on the sun weakened and the evening began to awaken. Ty came over and put a mirror under my nose to make sure I was still alive. We chatted about the hike and he said that Noemie had no problem keeping up and in spite of language barriers had his usual mellow, open eyed, good time adventure. I must say that aside from the occasional minor spazz, Tyler is very level headed as humans go. The right combination of receptivity, self respect and selfless service. Doesn't hurt to have the brain of a mutant either.

And Noemie, this picture of youth, this student of agricultural engineering with a mind to explore relief work, standing there kind of knock kneed and smiling big like she had just seen something that added a bunch of acreage to her farm. The end of the day was reconciled in harmony as we all began to think with our stomachs.

The pasta was there for all and as for the rest, bags of this and that appeared, joints were torched and Ty made some tea out of the wild spearmint he found growing on one of his walks. The temperature dipped with the rays of the sun and the first signs of night crept over the pali to the east. It was a typical Paliku day segueing into an evening spent in candlelight and card games with pecans as poker chips. Noemie kicked our butts.

"Whats next unky Jp, huhhuhhuh?? Didja sleep outside again or rastle the moon?? Whadja do next?"

"Well little feller, your gonna have to trust me on this, but I can't really talk about what happened next, 'cause it involved nakedness and coconut oil and more of that stuff that looked like tree bark and dried seaweed, but i'll tell you all about that when your a bit older."

"Thanks unky Jp. Thanks." " Sure, little feller, sure."

Out the gap we go.

The more you show, the more we'll grow. Peace, Jp